


We Pick Ourselves Undone

by glowinglanterns



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Found Family AU, Gen, M/M, Other, Wholesome, but there might be some angst, idk what direction this is going to go in tbh - Freeform, just not too much because i am weak, multiple POVs, they're like... regular people here. not celebrities, will have fluff, will have minimal angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-04-06 16:45:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14061159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowinglanterns/pseuds/glowinglanterns
Summary: seven lives intertwined in the most mundane of ways.A normal AU in which they're all regular people just trying to get through life, like you and I.





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> title from the song "Flaws" by Bastille.

Myungsoo dropped his keys onto the table next to the door, kicking his shoes off at the same time. He made sure to lock the door—the normal lock as well as the chain. Weird people lived in his building.

“Byeol-ah,” Myungsoo called, as he shed his jacket and dropped it onto the couch. “I’m home.”

There was no response from the cat, which Myungsoo expected as much. Byeol wasn’t that easy of a cat, no, he liked to play hard to get. He’d show himself when he got hungry or wanted some pats on the head.

Instead, Myungsoo busied himself with setting out tonight’s dinner (takeout from his usual place) and opening his laptop up to play the next episode of the drama he was watching. He broke the chopsticks apart, pulled the bowl into his lap, and kicked his feet up to spend the next thirty-four minutes following the story of the honest young man trying to win over the rich girl’s heart. He did spend quite a bit of the time scoffing at the cheesy lines, but truly, his heart did flutter a little when the girl fell into the protagonist’s arms and they spent a few seconds staring at each other in shock.

All in all, another satisfying episode. And his bowl was empty. Time to get back to work.

He got up to grab a quick beer from the fridge, petting his cat (who had decided to make an appearance) on the head as he walked back to the couch. He took his camera out of his bag, removed the SD card and inserted it into the laptop. He was going to do some editing.

Myungsoo was a photographer, full-time, though struggling. He received enough commissions to get by, but it didn’t mean that he had to completely get rid of his part-time job at the grocery store. No. He wasn’t that accomplished, yet.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t throw his heart and soul into his work, because that was really all he had left going for him. Well, that and Byeol. Safe to say his parents weren’t completely impressed with his career choices and minimalistic (not by choice) lifestyle, but he hid his struggles well enough, and it wasn’t like he was starving. He was getting by just fine. Myungsoo was nothing if not stubborn.

 

-x-x-x-

 

“Hyung, table three! Order up!” Woohyun called, dropping the plate onto the ledge and tearing the order down to toss it next to the dish. Next order was stir-fried glass noodles. Okay.

“Yah, Woohyun-ah, be careful, you’ll break the plates,” Dongwoo hyung gently chastised as he whisked the plate away and carried it over to the correct table. Woohyun didn’t have a chance to respond, but he really couldn’t say anything, anyway. It was true, he should be more careful. Broken plates came out of his paycheck, after all. He decided to just focus on the next dish instead before the sous-chef came after his ass again.

Five hours later, the restaurant was finally closed and clean-up was almost done. Dongwoo hyung came to visit him in the kitchen, taking the opportunity to slap Woohyun’s butt with the damp rag he had used to wipe down tables. “I’m ready to pass out,” he bemoaned, but his eyes looked content nonetheless. Dongwoo hyung was like that, he tended to smile in the face of adversity. Or any occasion really, unless it was sad and/or mildly touching—in those cases he bawled like a baby. He didn’t like it when people mentioned that, though. Woohyun couldn’t fault him for that, really. He was no better.

 “All done at the front?” Woohyun asked, drying the last bowl and stacking it away in its proper place.

Dongwoo hyung nodded, walking to the back closet to put away the rag and the spray bottle he was holding. “Why do you always get stuck doing the last of the clean up?” Dongwoo hyung asked, brows furrowing. He picked up the cleaned plates and put them away. “Why don’t the other guys stay back too?”

Woohyun waved his concern away, drying his hands on a towel and aiming a smile at his hyung. “It’s fine, they wanted to go drinking.” Dongwoo hyung was his good friend, and honestly, if it wasn’t for him, he wouldn’t watch his health as much as he did now.

He crossed his arms, full-on frowning now. “What if you wanted to go drinking too?”

Woohyun untied his apron and hung it on his hook. He steered Dongwoo hyung towards to back door by the shoulders, slapping the lights off as they passed by the switch. “But I didn’t, so it’s fine.”

They paused to shrug on their jackets and grab their bags before leaving the restaurant and locking up for the night. “It’s not fair Woohyunnie, y’know? Should I talk to them?”

Woohyun breathed a laugh at Dongwoo hyung’s serious expression. “No, _dad_ , I’m perfectly fine dealing with them myself, but thank you.”

Dongwoo hyung didn’t look all too convinced, but the beauty of Dongwoo hyung was that he was distracted very easily. “The bus!” he yelled, breaking out into a sprint, waving and yelling loudly for it to wait. It would have been more embarrassing if it had been a few hours earlier into the evening, but no one was around now, so Woohyun thought there was no harm in following after his friend, yelling for the bus driver uncle to wait for them.

 

-x-x-x-

 

“I am not working overtime tonight,” Sungyeol muttered to himself as he ushered in the next patient who needed an injection. He glanced over the patient’s chart as the guy rolled up his sleeve. Sungyeol didn’t spend time on any small talk, either. Jab the needle, slap a bandaid on, and make a few notes in the chart and the patient was out of there.

It’s not like he hated his job. No. He actually loved it, on the contrary. But burnout was just around the corner, he could feel it. Not to mention one of his coworkers got sick, so Sungyeol was stuck covering their shifts on top of his own. He was just tired. So tired.

He dropped the chart off at the desk and took a minute to stretch his back muscles out. Twenty more minutes then he was free. He was already fantasizing about the warm ramyun he was going to eat, and maybe a beer? Oh, and some bread, for dessert. Yes. That sounded so good.

“Sungyeol-ssi, can you run a test on this guy? I wanna take my break,” one of the senior nurses called, already walking towards the break room in the back.

“We all do,” he snarked under his breath, but made his way over to the desk to grab the patient’s chart nonetheless. He exhaled deeply after flipping through it, then straightened his shoulders to stick his head into the waiting room with an I’m-Not-Exhausted-I-Love-Helping-People smile, calling the patient’s name.

Fifteen minutes left. Then it was just Sungyeol, his dog Aga, and some warm ramyun.

 

-x-x-x-

 

Sungjong flipped another page of his textbook. He was bored. He hated doing readings. His eyes needed a rest. He looked up from the book and blinked a few times until the convenience store wasn’t blurry anymore. His eyes followed his Hoya hyung, who was dancing in between aisles as he restocked the soup cans.

Hoya hyung was allowed to dance all he wanted, because that was his line of work. Well, sort of. He aspired to have that be his line of work, but auditions were hard. But that was still better than nothing. Sungjong was _not_ allowed to dance all he wanted, because he was studying psychology and health and he worked two jobs that both very often did not leave opportunity to dance. Not to mention the extra volunteering he had to do at a lab. Sungjong had wanted to study performative arts, he was a very eye-catching person. And he had talent to spare. But his parents suggested he do that on the side, and focus on building a more stable career first.

They didn’t mention he wouldn’t have any time or money to actually do anything _on the side_. It was fine, though. Usually he didn’t grouse about it too much, but the readings were seriously killing him tonight. He needed sleep.

“Hyung,” Sungjong called, dropping a few coins in the cash register, “give me an energy drink.”

Hoya hyung removed one of his earbuds and raised an eyebrow at him.

Sungjong sighed. “ _Please_.”

Hoya hyung was a very easy person to work with, and Sungjong could easily say he respected this hyung more than all the other hyungs he worked with. Hoya hyung and Myungsoo hyung from the grocery store were the two he worked with the most, but Myungsoo hyung liked to cling to Sungjong’s back when he got sleepy, and Myungsoo hyung was _always_ sleepy. And sure, they were able to joke around easily, but Sungjong liked talking to Hoya hyung the most, because Hoya hyung was a good listener, and he always had something wise to say about any problem he was having. He was a valuable hyung. Plus, he didn’t bother Sungjong when he was trying to study. Unlike Myungsoo hyung… Myungsoo hyung was quiet and pretty but he was also annoying and a child.

As Hoya hyung came up front to drop off the drink, a customer in a suit came in. Sungjong said his usual hello-and-welcome line and busied himself with chugging down the drink. The customer didn’t spare him a glance, and Sungjong did not spare one for him.

 

-x-x-x-

 

He needed cheap alcohol and lots of snacks. He should probably eat better, but tonight, Sunggyu could really care less. Idols were horrible to work with, even if Sunggyu worked with them indirectly. He didn’t have anything against the idols themselves, of course, but the work that went into just acquiring and putting together schedules, getting music producers and song writers and choreographers and stylists and sponsors and—

No, he was not going to think about that right now.

He didn’t even do all that work himself. He was just a small office worker, but comebacks put everyone’s nerves on end, not just the idols’.

Oh how he desperately wanted to go back to working with underground indie-rock bands… at least he would be putting together schedules for people who created music he actually liked.

As he passed the soup aisle, one of the workers were executing an intricate dance move while putting the cans away.

Sunggyu could barely bite back a sneer. He did _not_ need this. He officially hated musical artists, all of them.

With haste, Sunggyu piled a few beer cans and some snacks into his arms and hurried over to the front to dump them on the counter.

The cans were still cold, and the cashier had had a book open, so a little bit of watery residue dotted the pages.

“Aaah,” the cashier cried quietly to himself, eyes wide. He pulled the book out from under Sunggyu’s items and lifted the page, gently blowing. “There goes the resale value.”

Sunggyu felt bad, but not bad enough to stick around for too long. “Sorry about that. How much do I owe you?”

The cashier frowned, shutting the book and lifting it up for Sunggyu to see the cover. It was a textbook. “This was like 79 000 won.”

Sunggyu furrowed his brows. “I meant my snacks and drinks. How much?”

“Oh.” The cashier put the book away off to the side and quickly rung him up. “5849 won.”

Sunggyu paid with his card and took his bagged items from the boy. “Sorry again for the book.”

The cashier shrugged and Sunggyu left to go back to his apartment, passing by a guy in a nurse’s outfit going into the store.


	2. two

Howon loved living alone. He used to have roommates but they eventually started to do something with their lives and were able to afford housing on their own. Which was fine, because now he could be by himself. It was great. He loved it.

The only problem was that Howon _wasn’t_ doing anything with his own life, and was very much _unable_ to afford housing on his own. But he had no roommates. So, he _had_ to afford housing on his own, even if it meant putting his life goals on the back burner for a second. Sleeping in the street was not a pleasant way to exist, in his opinion. He was only one paycheque away from that fate, unfortunately.

So he was forced to advertise for a roommate. He tried to do it online, initially, but the weirdest creeps kept showing up at his door. The first one had this strange affinity for socks. He was only in the apartment for less than an hour to look around and meet Howon, but Howon was missing one sock from four pairs by the time he had left. It was preposterous.

Another one had asked point-blank if Howon could leave a few nights every week so that him and his girlfriend could have… alone time. And not the cute, snuggly, feeding-each-other-popcorn alone time, no. Howon could see it in that guy’s eyes: he was mentally making a list of the best places to fuck in the apartment. Appalling.

Nonetheless, Howon had not had any luck with finding a roommate, and he was getting restless himself. He didn’t want to live paycheque to paycheque anymore, he didn’t want to keep taking on extra shifts at the convenience store. He wanted time to practice.

His apartment wasn’t bad, either. Sure, the neighbourhood was a bit questionable, and the building had its fair share of weirdos, but the apartment itself was clean. Hoya had made a point to make the place look hospitable and inviting. His life already sucked, he didn’t need to come home to a replica of a prison cell every night either.

The issue was, as Sungjong from work had so eloquently put it, that his standards were too high.

Howon couldn’t help it, though! He wasn’t going to live with someone who could steal his things (or socks) in the middle of the night. Or someone who was going to come on every piece of furniture Howon had painstakingly saved up to purchase. Or just molest, maim, or murder him in general.

Howon had high standards. Howon had his _pride_. And while it looked like life was kicking his ass at the moment, it did not mean that Howon would stoop low enough to allow just _anyone_ into his home. He wanted someone with similar values to him, and someone who was quiet like him too. Preferably someone also looking to get into the music and performance industry, so they could cheer each other on.

But those types of ads only attracted university students. And Sungjong was the only university student that Howon could tolerate. He could not deal with the partying and the drinking and the loud friends and the late nights spent doing homework. Howon had left school early for a reason.

Howon didn’t mind Sungjong though, because Sungjong was the only person he knew who could actually hold an intelligent conversation, in his eyes. Sungjong’s opinions on the world, on life, or on his disgusting lunch obviously reflected his age, yes, (he was only twenty-one), but they came from the heart, and Howon valued anyone who spoke from the heart.

Howon wished he could just ask Sungjong to move in with him, but Sungjong had already paid for the dorm he lived in for the year, and Howon couldn’t waste time waiting for Sungjong’s year to be over. And while a desperate university student would be the quickest solution, Howon just couldn’t bring himself to allow one of those creatures into his home.

So yes, his list of criteria was stringent. But he knew it would pay off in the end, and that he would find a good long-term roommate who didn’t make Howon want to sleep with a knife under his pillow.

And Howon was right.

One fateful day, specifically on September 15th, while Howon was hanging up advertisements for roommates around the neighbourhood (Howon knew humanity should stop depending on technology so heavily. It only brought him pain in the form of useless roommate applicants. Doing things himself like this would be best), he heard a powerful voice singing some song he didn’t know. It didn’t matter what the song was, really, but Howon’s curiousity was officially piqued. He still had an hour before his shift, he could spare a moment to check out some talent.

He followed the voice, which broke out into hiccupping laughter. And stopped singing. Hm. He turned a corner and while it was bustling with the usual amount of foot traffic, he could easily tell the laughter was coming from two guys who were both wearing aprons in front of that restaurant Howon had never been able to afford to eat at. They were kicking and punching at each other while laughing, until someone stuck their head out of the restaurant and threw a few sharp words at them. They straightened up immediately, biting back smiles.

One guy cleared his throat and started singing again, and the other guy started passing flyers out to people with a huge smile.

The singing was coming from that guy! And he looked clean. And he was into music, clearly. And he looked to be around Howon’s age. And he had a job and was stable enough to have a friend, even if that friend looked almost close to vibrating with all the energy he had.

Maybe… maybe this singing guy was looking for a roommate?

It wouldn’t hurt to try.

But he couldn’t really just go and ask some stranger, “hey, you wanna live with me?”. That would be weird. Howon stood in the street with a frown. His gaze then fell to the flyers in his hand. Oh. _Ohhh_.  

As casually as he could, he walked by the pair, nearer to the singing guy, pretending to shuffle through his flyers. And then, just as he passed by the singing guy, he let one flyer slip out of his grip. He continued to walk, as if he hadn’t noticed.

He hoped this would work. He didn’t want to work three extra shifts just to be able to afford cheap rice and some canned fish. Please, plea—

“Excuse me!” The singing had stopped.

 _Yes_.

Howon turned around with his best confused expression. The singing guy was holding the paper out to him.

“Ah… thank you,” Howon said, taking the paper from him. He added it back to his pile. The guy nodded at him.

And they just stood there.

Howon… wasn’t the best conversationalist. But he wanted to do something, _anything_ , to see if this person could be a potential roommate.

“I—” Howon tried, but choked on his words as the other friend bounded over to them with a smile.

“Whatcha just standing around for!” he asked cheerfully. “Get your butt back to singing, Woohyun, otherwise the boss will beat our asses again!”

This person did not seem all that concerned about getting his ass beat, _again_. Woohyun, however, blanched. “See ya,” he said to Howon, and went back to his post.

The friend nodded at Howon and placed a flyer for the restaurant in his hand (ooh, they were having a weeklong dinner promotion) before skipping back to his original spot.

Howon sighed, defeated. If he was better at making conversation, then he could have done something. Howon contemplated his next move—should he just leave? Should he try again? He didn’t want to seem desperate—oh fuck.

Suddenly, Howon was on the ground.

Someone tripped over him, kneeing him in the stomach when they themselves face planted on the pavement.

“Whoa, you okay?” the singing guy came back to ask, kneeling next to Howon. The friend went to help the person who had bumped into him.

“Yeah,” he croaked out. “I’d be better if this guy got off me,” Howon shoved the too-long legs off his body and sat up, rubbing his stomach, displeased.

The person who tripped into him sat up as well, eyes wide, hair ruffled. “Shit, I’m so sorry,” he started gathering the flyers scattered around Howon. Howon hadn’t even realized they were all on the ground. “I-I was just running late, I have work, I overslept.”

“It’s four in the evening,” the singing guy, Woohyun, said, amused.

The guy’s lips pursed, shoulders slumping. “Right,” he gathered up the rest of the flyers and shoved them at Woohyun’s friend. “Sorry, I gotta go. I hope you’re okay.”

Howon crossed his arms, raising a brow. “What if I’m not?”

The guy scrunched his face, not understanding. But then he glanced at his wristwatch and bit his lip. “Look, I’m sorry, I don’t have any money, even if you wanted to sue me. But if you wanna beat me up, I’ll be at the grocery store down the street, feel free to drop by.” And then he ran off.

Woohyun frowned. “Are you really not okay? He did get you in the stomach real bad.”

Howon shook his head, letting a small smile play at his lips. “No, I was joking.”

“You’re not good at joking,” Woohyun scoffed, but got up and extended a hand out for Howon to take.

 _Now would be a good time to bring up the roommate thing, how should he go about this? Should he mention their mutual love for music?_ “Hey, so I—”

“Woohyunnie!” Woohyun’s friend gasped. “This guy’s looking for a roommate!”

 _Thank you Woohyun’s friend_ , Howon was deeply grateful. That cut the hard part out of his job. “Yeah, so I—”

Woohyun’s eyes narrowed, “Dongwoo hyung, Sunggyu hyung and I talked about this with you.”

“Actually—” Howon tried again, because Woohyun wasn’t looking too happy with the roommate idea at the moment, and he needed to turn the tide in his favour.

Woohyun’s friend, Dongwoo, _actually_ pouted. This grown ass man just pouted, and the worst part was that it was adorable. Like a small, helpless creature. “Woohyun, c’mon, look at him, he’s not like the other guy!”

Howon knew he was missing about 75% of the conversation, but he was desperate. “He’s right, I’m not.”

“See!”

Woohyun shot Howon a quick glare, but then turned his attentions back onto his friend. “He could just be saying that. He would need to go through an assessment.”

“ _I’m_ the hyung, y’kno—”

“You’re the hyung that nearly got himself kidnapped and sold into some underground sex trade, so Sunggyu hyung said that you’re not allowed to make big decisions by yourself anymore, and that I’m in charge when he’s not here,” Woohyun said resolutely.

… what.

Ignoring that (but to be revisited tonight), Howon realized that this conversation was targeting the wrong potential roommate. He didn’t want the small springy guy who seemed loud and apparently nearly got himself kidnapped. He wanted the musical guy who seemed mature and stable. “Wait, actually, I was wondering if _you_ were looking for a roommate,” Howon asked Woohyun.

Caught off guard for a second, Woohyun didn’t know what to say. “Oh.”

However, Dongwoo did not leave much time for Woohyun to formulate a response. He quickly stepped in front of Woohyun, to face Howon with a frown. “You don’t want me?”

Woohyun’s eyes narrowed. “Hey. Yeah, what’s wrong with him?”

Huh? Wasn’t he discouraging this guy earlier? “Nothing’s wrong, it’s just—”

“I _really_ need a roommate! I need to move! I need to grow!” Dongwoo exclaimed, flailing his limbs around to punctuate his point.

“He needs to _grow_!” Woohyun loudly agreed, almost angrily.

Howon didn’t understand what was happening anymore.

“But—”

“We’ll see Sunggyu hyung, we’re gonna do a full background check and interview with this guy, then we’ll let you move in with him,” Woohyun said, snatching a flyer from Dongwoo to squint at it.

“Wait—”

“I don’t need your approval! Anyone can make these types of mistakes!” Dongwoo said, obviously offended.

“Excuse me—”

“Dongwoo hyung, I love you, but you’ve been scammed four times already. You know how Sunggyu hyung feels about poor financial decisions, let alone rooming with a kidnapper. And you’ve already done both of those. We need to make sure.”

Howon decided that he wasn’t going to get a word in edgewise and that it would be best just to relinquish the last of his flyers and get the hell out of there, for the sake of his sanity.

 

-x-x-x-

 

Sunggyu had two friends. He had many acquaintances, of course, but he only had two people he called actual friends. Unfortunately, those two friends needed constant care and attention, otherwise who knew what would happen to them.

Sometimes Sunggyu thought about picking up a few new friends, but apparently it wasn’t as easy as picking up some food on the way home. There was more effort involved, and Sunggyu did not have the time or willpower to put _any_ effort into this whole endeavour.

As such, there he was. Two friends.

It wasn’t so bad, most of the time. They fed themselves, kept themselves busy, went to work and then came straight home, usually. Sometimes they got distracted and took a detour to a bar or a restaurant or a club, but that was fine as long as they let Sunggyu know beforehand.

Other times, he found one lying on the floor, drunk off his ass, crying about how his life was going no where. Or, one trusted a bad person and suddenly had no more savings and was in danger of being homeless. It was difficult, being friends with these two, sometimes.

So, when Woohyun and Dongwoo skipped into his apartment that evening with giant grins on their faces, Sunggyu steeled himself for the incoming idiocy.

“Gyu hyung! Do you have food?” Dongwoo asked brightly, sidestepping Sunggyu and making a beeline for his kitchen.

Sunggyu put his hands on his hips (much like his mother did, he realized in horror some time later), “You didn’t even say hello to me.”

“Hello, Gyu hyung!” Dongwoo said, his head deep in the refrigerator.

Woohyun didn’t bother saying hello either. Instead, he slapped a paper down on the coffee table in front of Sunggyu. “Look at this.”

Sunggyu sighed and sat down on his couch, but picked up the paper anyway to give it a scan. It was a flyer advertising for a roommate. It was actually in the same apartment building that Sunggyu and Woohyun lived in. The rent was decent, and the space looked clean…

“How do we know if—” Sunggyu looked up with a sudden thought.

Woohyun waved away his concern. “We met him. He was a bit awkward and quiet, but maybe that would be a good thing. Maybe Dongwoo hyung will learn to be calm.”

“Or,” Sunggyu speculated, dropping the flyer onto the couch seat next to him, “he could be quiet because he’s a murderer.”

It wasn’t a long shot, if you thought about it carefully. Dongwoo tended to attract these types of people.

Woohyun sat down on the floor and rested his chin on the table. “Actually, he said he wanted me to be his roommate.”

Sunggyu raised a brow. “What, you’re gonna move three floors up?”

“No, stupid, obviously not. But at least we can keep a better eye on him if he’s here.”

“Hyung, you have no food. None. So I ordered jjajangmyun. Also I’m not getting paid till Friday,” Dongwoo smiled prettily and Sunggyu glared, because what else could he do in this situation?

Then, Sunggyu realized something. “Hey, if he lives here, how come we haven’t seen him around before?”

Woohyun also quieted down in contemplation.

Sunggyu was jostled as Dongwoo jumped over the back of the couch and landed in the seat next to him (and a little on top of him as well), effectively crumpling the paper underneath him. “It’s because you two have no social lives and never leave your apartments,” Dongwoo scoffed, bringing his legs up onto the couch. “I’ve seen him in the laundry room downstairs, in the lobby, and in the convenience store next to your building. You guys really don’t pay attention.”

Huh. Maybe Sunggyu had seen him before. “What does he look like?”

“Black hair, a little taller than Woohyunnie, likes to dance. He’s kinda built like an action figure. Or a Lego man.”

Maybe he hadn’t seen him before then.

But could he really be trusted? They’d have to do a thorough inspection of his apartment, and a full interview.

“Also my roommate said I have to be out of the apartment in two days because the new guy,” at this, Dongwoo’s face soured. “—the new guy who can _pay rent_ is moving in this week.”

Woohyun rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe people are like that. How could he just kick you out!”

“Right?” Dongwoo agreed loudly, eyes wide in disbelief. “Who just _does_ that?”

“You couldn’t pay rent!” Sunggyu shouted, exasperated.

“So? We were _friends_! And I was nice and did the cleaning to make up for it!”

Sunggyu rubbed his temples. “You don’t know _how_ to clean.”

“I know!” Dongwoo cried. “And he still kicked me out even though I tried so hard!”

The three were quiet for a few seconds, before Woohyun sighed.

“You destroyed his apartment, didn’t you.”

Dongwoo’s reply was quick and ashamed. “Yep.”

 

-x-x-x-

 

This old lady was testing Sungjong’s patience.

“So, young man, I would like to use these three coupons,” the lady said, slowly digging around in her purse to pull the crumpled pieces of paper out. She handed them to Sungjong one by one.

The line behind her was growing.

Sungjong scanned the coupon codes quickly, then— _beep beep_. Ugh. Shit. “Uh, ma’am, this one is expired.”

The old lady squinted at Sungjong from behind her thick glasses. “Hmm? Are you sure? Because I got that coupon from my flyers, and I always keep good track of my flyers and my coupons. I’ve made a whole book and—”

“No, it’s expired.”

She frowned. “No, that can’t be. Try again, maybe your machine is broken.”

Sungjong found the tiny expiry date written on the coupon. “It expired four months ago, see?”

“I don’t think so.”

Myungsoo hyung, a person who worked at the grocery store with him, snickered as he passed by, carrying a few boxes.

“Open a new line,” Sungjong hissed at him before turning around to smile politely at the lady. “I’m sorry ma’am, I can’t process this coupon for you, but I can use the other two. How would you like to pay today?”

The lady huffed a breath, but took her coupon back anyway. “Cash.”

And then Sungjong realized he had to wait for her to get her money together. He could already hear people muttering in the back. Sungjong’s polite smile was faltering, and Myungsoo still hadn’t opened up another line.

Sungjong glanced back to see what Myungsoo was doing. Looked like he was chatting with some tall guy. About… ice cream? Were they comparing two brands? Myungsoo hyung was pointing at one of the cartons of ice cream that the tall guy was holding while wearing his I-am-stubborn-and-I-will-win-this-argument face.

_Myungsoo hyung, I swear to everything beautiful, I will kill you once the rush dies down._

“And that’s it. There you go, young man. Please bag my things up.”

Sungjong got the lady all packed up, even put the groceries in her cart for her and sent her off with a wave. As soon as she hobbled away, Sungjong stepped back and yelled a sharp, “hyung!”

“Okay!” he barked back. He pointed at the carton of ice cream in finality, turned up his nose, then stepped up to an empty cash register. “I can help the next few customers here!”

Thankfully, some of the people relocated to the other line, and Sungjong was able to get through the rush fairly effectively.

Half an hour later, Myungsoo hyung came around to Sungjong’s line and dropped his chin on his shoulder. “Sungjooong, sorry about earlier,” he said, trying to seem pitiful.

Sungjong ignored him.

Myungsoo hyung wrapped his arms around his waist and snuggled closer. “Sungjongiiiiee, really. I thought the guy had a quick question, but he was being stupid and I had to educate him.”

Sungjong was not amused. He filled out his log book in silence.

“Pleeease, I’ve had the worst day, Jjong-ah, I can’t have you be mad at me too, it would make this day even shittier.”

Sungjong tossed his pen down and turned around to face Myungsoo hyung, who pulled back in surprise. “I was literally going to kill that old lady with her own coupons, but you thought that fighting some guy about ice cream was a better use of your time.”

“He was very wrong! It would have been a sin to have let him continue on living life so ignorantly.”

Sungjong scoffed. He wanted to whack Myungsoo hyung over the head with his log book. “Shut up, you just like to fight people.”

Myungsoo hyung broke out into a grin, “not all the time, this guy was just a good opponent.”

He really couldn’t win with this hyung. Sungjong respected Hoya hyung a lot because he was smart and confident and followed his dreams. With Myungsoo hyung… it was more about fondness. Myungsoo hyung was a person who was cute and a little oblivious about some of his own charms, but that just made him more charming. Of course, he knew he was attractive, that’s how he always got bigger portions at restaurants, but Sungjong couldn’t really hold him to fault with that one, because once Myungsoo hyung showed him how to do that trick effectively, Sungjong abused its power a lot. He had at least four people at separate establishments in love with him, Sungjong was convinced.

Anyway, Myungsoo hyung with his head in the clouds and his weird sense of humour and his reclusive ways and his clinginess would be hard to tolerate in anyone else. Myungsoo hyung was just special, Sungjong supposed.

However, it didn’t mean he didn’t annoy the hell out of him. “Tell me how your day was bad,” Sungjong commanded, leaning against the counter. “I want to know how you suffered.”

“That’s mean,” Myungsoo pouted, but launched into his extensive (albeit a little boring) story of how his alarm clock stopped working and Byeol was being a shit, and how when he was running he had an accident. “I smashed into this poor guy, I felt so bad. I think I kneed him in the stomach. His flyers went everywhere.”

Sungjong gasped. That sounded really painful. And knowing Myungsoo hyung, he probably got hurt too.

“Yeah, and I apologized but he was all ‘what if I’m really hurt?’ and I was like ‘look I have no money, but you can come beat me up, I work that the grocery store down the street’ and then I came to work and I dropped a box of canned peaches on my foot. Then that guy happened, then you yelled at me. That’s my day so far.”

While that sucked and Sungjong felt bad for him, Sungjong was stuck on one piece of information. “Hyung… you told him where you worked? And you _invited_ him to come beat you up?”

Myungsoo hyung shrugged. “Well, yeah.”

Sungjong grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him a little. “Are you stupid? You could get jumped! He could kill you! You don’t know who he was, he could probably turn your face inside out!”

Myungsoo hyung nodded. “He definitely could. I think I felt his abs when I kneed him in the gut. They were really hard.”

“ _Myungsoo hyung_!” Sungjong couldn’t help but shriek. He could not understand why he wasn’t as worried about this as Sungjong was.

He supposed Myungsoo hyung found Sungjong’s concern to be endearing, because he patted Sungjong’s head lovingly and gave him a wide smile. “Don’t worry Jjongie, I’ll protect myself. I know how to use nunchucks.”

Fuckin’ nerd. Sweet, adorable, fuckin’ nerd.

That night, when Sungjong came in to work his shift at the convenience store, Hoya hyung greeted him and said, “you wouldn’t believe what kind of dipshit knocked into me today. He told me to come fight him at the grocery store. Don’t you work there?”

Myungsoo hyung was going to be the death of Sungjong, he could feel it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! thank you so much for reading my stress induced fanwork! please let me know if there is anywhere i can improve!


	3. three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dongwoo goes through a lot-- sungyeol, sunggyu, and woohyun are tired. howon is manipulated, he's sure, but doesn't know how.

Dongwoo was desperate.

His friend had kicked him out of the apartment a day early, and Dongwoo couldn’t hold it against him, really. Dongwoo had accidentally spit cereal over them after barging into his roommate’s room and witnessing him and his girlfriend performing _very_ acrobatic intercourse.

But to his credit, Dongwoo was just surprised. He didn’t know either of them could bend that way, or that it was even physically possible to do so in general.

To make matters worse, he kind of laughed. Giggled. That was probably the last straw.

(It wasn’t his fault he laughed when he was nervous!)

Anywho, he was now sitting out in the hallway surrounded by his boxes of things. There were entirely too many boxes, and he now understood why Sunggyu hyung always scolded him for being a hoarder.

He didn’t know what to do with himself now. He had to move all these boxes somewhere, but he couldn’t do it himself. He tried to think of the best person to call. Sunggyu hyung was at work, Woohyun said never to bother him when he was recording his youtube videos (he was trying to get rich off of youtube by singing. It hadn’t worked yet). His roommate was the one who had put him into this situation in the first place. He could call his brother-in-law… but he was probably busy with his café.

Ah. He had one person he could call, who he knew would be free right now. But he was a little afraid.

Taking a deep breath, he scrolled through his contacts and found the name.

Lee Sungyeol (“Sungyeollie!!!! ˃̵ᴗ˂” in his phone).

Taking a deep breath, he pressed the call button. It rang and rang and rang until it hit Sungyeol’s voicemail.

The little shit was ignoring him.

Dongwoo called again, this time with less hesitation. It rang four times before a grouchy voice answered.

“What.”

“Dongsaeng-ah!” Dongwoo greeted cheerfully, trying to figure out how he would convince his nurse friend to come and help him out in between shifts. “H-how are you?”

There was a pause on the other end, before Dongwoo heard a deep sigh. “Dongwoo hyung, remember we said that I needed to sleep so you would make sure no one would bother me during the day? Remember when you were a good hyung for that? What changed?”

Dongwoo cleared his throat. “Well,” he began. “The thing is, that I kind of got kicked out by my roommate after I saw him having kinky sex and now all my stuff is in the hallway and I have nowhere to go, so I was hoping you could maybe. Um. Maybe help me take my stuff to Sunggyu hyung’s apartment?”

Silence.

Then, “WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO YOU HYUNG, HOW DO YOU GET INTO THESE SITUATIONS, I AM SO—”

Dongwoo moved the phone away from his ear and patiently waited a full minute before he lifted it up again to hear the tail-end of the lecture.

“We need to keep an eye on you twenty-four seven at this point! You’re always out having fun and no one knows where you are, we get so worried! It’s so tiring having to look through your friends’ Instagrams to find out what you’re doing! You don’t tell us, you just go! I know you’re old as fuck now but after the kidnapping thing you can’t really blame us!”

Oh, so he wasn’t done. Dongwoo removed the phone again and thought about what a nice friend Sungyeol was. Sungyeol had never met Sunggyu hyung and Woohyun before, so he wasn’t part of their group, but Sungyeol was Dongwoo’s precious friend, especially when Dongwoo wanted to get drunk and do stupid shit. Or work out. They had a versatile friendship.

He had met Sungyeol through one of his old injury-prone roommates who had befriended a nurse so he wouldn’t have to keep going to the hospital. It was a practical reason but Sungyeol hadn’t been aware of it and had felt hurt later on when he realized that the roommate only hung out with him when he needed something bandaged up. The roommate was a weirdo anyway with a strange affinity for doing reckless things, and after a close brush with death at the hands of the roommate, Dongwoo decided to dump the roommate and hang out with Sungyeol by himself.

Sungyeol turned out to be a cool guy who had more to offer than his bandaging techniques, but was a little bad at keeping friends due to his tight nurse schedule and his quick-to-flare temper.

He kind of seemed like a scary guy because of his tall stature, broad shoulders, and intense eyes, but he was adorable to his patients and had a little puppy named Aga who he loved the very most. Dongwoo liked Sungyeol a lot, and he knew that Sungyeol was going to help him.

He put the phone back to his ear.

“You put the phone down so you wouldn’t have to listen to me, didn’t you?” came Sungyeol’s deadpan voice, and Dongwoo winced.

“No!” he tried to lie, “there were people trying to walk through the hallway and my stuff was blocking it, so I had to put the phone down to help them with that.”

“Right,” Sungyeol said, obviously not believing him. “Anyway, since I’m up now, I might as well come help you. I’ll be there in twenty minutes okay?”

“Come fast!” Dongwoo urged, excited at the prospect of not being in the hallway anymore. “I love you dongsaeng-ah!”

Sungyeol hung up without replying but that was fine.

 

-x-x-x-

 

Sungyeol had a short six-hour shift tonight, and it didn’t start until seven PM, so that’s why he was feeling more generous today. He threw some clothes on and reassured Aga that he would be back very soon before heading out to meet his gym buddy.

When he stepped out of the elevator to Dongwoo hyung’s floor in his building, he kind of wanted to turn around and go back home. But the elevator door had shut so quickly. It wasn’t fair.

He had forgotten Dongwoo hyung was a hoarder. There were so many boxes. So many. And like two desks and five lamps. Who needed five lamps?

Before he could think of another escape plan, Dongwoo hyung had spotted him. “Sungyeol-ah!” he greeted brightly, waving his hand widely, as if Sungyeol was having trouble picking him out of a crowd.

But then again, there were so many boxes and Dongwoo hyung was so small. It was justified.

“Hyung,” Sungyeol greeted, but he realized it sounded more like a wince. “What is all this?”

“My stuff!” Dongwoo said cheerfully.

Sungyeol rubbed his face with his hands. “Okay, lets just get rid of some of this stuff first. Then we can move the rest to your hyung’s place.”

Dongwoo hyung’s eyes widened. “What? No, why? I need all this stuff.”

Sungyeol walked up to the mess with large strides and picked up three of the five lamps.  “You don’t need all of these.”

“Everyone needs light!” Dongwoo hyung protested.

“This is enough to light up the whole street, not just your room!” Sungyeol was resolute. “Pick one of these lamps, and we’ll toss the rest.”

Dongwoo did not like this at all, and he grabbed the three lamps from Sungyeol and hugged them to his chest. “No!”

For fuck’s sake.

Before Sungyeol could really get into it, the door banged open and Dongwoo’s (ex) roommate stuck his head out. “Why are you still here! Stop yelling outside my door!”

“Yeongguk-ah! Please let me back in!” Dongwoo turned around to plead, slamming a hand on the door to keep it open. He dropped the three lamps in a heartbeat. “I promise I’ll be better!”

“No! You’ve done enough! Keep it down!” Yeongguk yelled, and after some shoving from both of them (plus the roommate’s girlfriend, who Yeongguk had called to help him), they got the door shut and Dongwoo sprawled himself out on the floor and covered his face with his hands. He looked like he was two seconds away from kicking his feet and throwing a tantrum.

With a sigh, Sungyeol decided that reducing the garbage at this point would be a lost cause. “I guess we can load stuff into my car. Not everything is going to fit for the first trip, so choose the most important stuff first, and leave whatever you don’t mind getting stolen. We’re gonna have to come back for it later.”

Dongwoo hyung looked incredibly sad as he pulled himself up into a kneeling position without a word and started to gather all the boxes that he actually needed. He came up with five boxes. Sungyeol was so tempted to take those five boxes and get rid of the rest, but he didn’t want to make Dongwoo hyung even more sadder.

Overall, it took around four hours to get all the boxes into Dongwoo’s friend’s apartment. Around the last trip, as they were carrying the boxes into the elevator, another person got in. A person who made Dongwoo hyung’s eyes grow wide. He began to point at him wildly and mouth something. Sungyeol squinted. He didn’t know what he was saying.

“What?” Sungyeol whispered, glancing at the guy. The guy wore a simple black t-shirt and a ball cap pulled low over his eyes.

Dongwoo hyung tried mouthing some words to Sungyeol again, but Sungyeol was left more confused. Dongwoo hyung decided Sungyeol was a lost cause and stepped forward to grin at the guy in the black shirt. “Good afternoon!” he said brightly, and the guy startled so hard he bumped into Sungyeol. The guy looked back at him for a second, before facing Dongwoo hyung.

“Hi,” he said shortly. Because of his cap, Sungyeol couldn’t see what expressions he was making.

Dongwoo hyung lifted the box he was holding in his arms. “I’m ready to move in now!”

The guy paused. “Now?”

“Hyung!” Sungyeol whispered sharply, shocked.

Dongwoo hyung tilted his head to make eye contact with Sungyeol and gave him the most frightening stare before switching back to his pleasant expression. “Yes, now! You needed a roommate right? Do you remember me? That guy knocked you over and all your papers went flying and you said you wanted my friend to be your roommate and then I said why not me? I can’t remember if you agreed to take me but I am ready now! I have my boxes!”

“O-oh, er,” the guy glanced back at Sungyeol. “I mean, I guess. We would have to negotiate rent and sign a con—”

“I’ll sign it!” Dongwoo dug into the box he was holding and pulled out a pen. “I’m ready!”

“Oh,” the guy said again.

“Sorry about my hyung,” Sungyeol decided to step in, noticing they were reaching Dongwoo’s hyung’s floor. “I don’t know where this came from, but we’ll go now.”

The door pinged open and Sungyeol used his box to nudge Dongwoo hyung out the door. “I’m ready when you are!” Dongwoo hyung managed to yell out before the elevator shut behind them.

“What was that! Do you even know the guy?” Sungyeol scolded, shaking his head. “This is how you end up in all those bad situations.”

Dongwoo hyung huffed a breath at being pushed around like a full trash bag and stuck his nose into the air as he walked towards his hyung’s apartment.

“Hey, why are you ignoring me?” Sungyeol called, striding after him.

Dongwoo hyung looked up with a frown. “I’m still your hyung, don’t use ‘hey’.”

What Dongwoo hyung upset? But for what reason? He was fine two seconds ago in the elevator. And he never said anything about using informal language. “Hyung are you okay?”

He watched as Dongwoo hyung pressed in the code for the apartment and let himself in, keeping the door open with his foot so Sungyeol could come in as well. He kicked his shoes off then dropped the box next to the coffee table. He then disappeared into the kitchen.

Sungyeol didn’t know what the say. Dongwoo hyung never got mad, but when he did it was usually pretty scary. If only Sungyeol knew what had made Dongwoo hyung upset. He set his own box down and peered around the living room. He didn’t know the person who owned this apartment, just knew that he was Dongwoo hyung’s good friend. Well, he must be a good friend to allow Dongwoo hyung to dump all his boxes into his originally clean apartment.

Dongwoo hyung returned with a glass of water and gestured for Sungyeol to sit down on the couch, which he did. Dongwoo hyung took a seat on a giant yellow swing chair instead, wrapping himself around a body pillow. “I’m not mad, sorry. Everyone’s just been telling me that I can’t make decisions about myself because I’ve been kidnapped and now I’m homeless. Like, what does that have to do with anything?”

Sungyeol physically had to bite his tongue to keep from saying anything.

“Like I know it’s bad, I’m not stupid, but I’m still an adult. My issue is that I’m too trusting, sure, but that’s how I’ve made all my good friends as well. I think I can be allowed to go ahead and choose my own living spaces? Right Yeol?”

“Um,” Sungyeol started, but Dongwoo hyung kept going.

“It should be okay right? We should go see the guy. Oh, but I forgot—his details were on the flyer. Shit, stand up Sungyeol.” Dongwoo hyung jumped off the swing chair, tripping a bit before landing on his knees next to the sofa and patting around under the cushions. “Do you think the flyer is here? It needs to be here, I kind of need to get the boxes out of the apartment before Sunggyu hyung comes back. Yah, help me.”

Sungyeol sat down as well and began lifting cushions. He found change, a pen, and a very old condom, but no flyer. “Wait, so the guy who lives here doesn’t know your boxes ruined his living room?”

Dongwoo hyung lowered his head. “Um, no, but I just needed to put them here for a minute before I talked to the guy!”

“Oh no, is he going to be pissed?” Sungyeol was suddenly worried. Of course, a man who owned a yellow swing chair and had old dusty unused condoms laying around under sofa cushions didn’t paint the most frightening picture for him, but it was still something to consider.

He paused for a second, thinking hard. Then Dongwoo hyung looked up at him with a smile. “Nah, probably not, I mean he loves m—”

Suddenly, there was a series of beeps heard throughout the apartment and Dongwoo hyung froze like a deer in headlights. “Oh no,” he whispered.

“WHAT THE _FUCK_!”

Sungyeol took back his earlier assumptions regarding the yellow swing chair and the condom.

 

-x-x-x-

 

 _Bambambambam!_ went the quick succession of knocks on his door. They sounded angry, and Howon did not want to open the door to angry people.

“Yes?” he called through the door. One day, when he was less poor, he would be able to afford those fancy cameras that showed you who was standing outside.

“Take this person off my hands, I am _done_. You can have him!”

“Sorry, I’m not looking to buy people right now,” Howon quipped, biting back his own laugh. He didn’t know if it was an appropriate time to make jokes, but he couldn’t help himself.

There was silence on the other side of the door, and then he heard, “ _what the fuck did he say?_ ”

“ _I don’t know, maybe he’s making a joke?_ ”

“ _Why is every person I come into contact to a complete imbecile?_ ”

“Yah, I heard that!” Howon yelled, a little put out they didn’t appreciate his little one-liner.

“Let us in, we’re the roommate people,” a new voice called. “Remember? You got knocked over?”

“ _He did?_ ”

“ _Yeah, this kid completely ran over him, it was kind of funny, honestly._ ”

“ _Was he okay?_ ”

“ _I mean yeah? I dunno? He seems like he’s okay?_ ”

Howon was frustrated now, and decided to just open the door. He was greeted with four faces. One was the tall guy he bumped into in the elevator, the other two were the guys handing out flyers in front of their restaurant, and the last one was someone he did not know, but looked pissed as fuck. “What do you want?”

The pissed guy grabbed the shortest guy in the group by the forearm and tossed him at Howon. “Take him! He’s like a goddamn street cat, I’m so tired.”

Howon caught the guy, who was pouting up a storm and allowing himself to be manhandled. He then pushed him back into Pissed Off Guy. “You’re really not selling him well right now.”

The guy put both his hands on the guy’s shoulders and leaned over him to speak directly to Howon. “I heard you were advertising for a roommate,” he said through gritted teeth. “We would respectfully like for you to consider my _wonderful_ , _reliable_ , and _sweet_ dongsaeng.”

One of the other guys, the singing guy, stifled a laugh behind his hand. The tallest one was looking at the shortest one in concern.

Honestly? Howon just wanted to piss this guy off even more. He didn’t even know why. Maybe it was his face. He kind of had a punchable face. “Why should I?”

The guy pinched the bridge of his nose and stared up at the ceiling as if that would solve his issues. “Listen, my dongsaeng is an upstanding citizen who will care for you deeply as a roommate.”

“Can he clean up after himself? Pay rent on time? Not stay up at weird hours? Is he loud? Can he cook?”

All four of them glanced among each other, and the shortest one looked down at his feet.

“Mhm.” Howon intoned, knowing that his job was done, and stepped back to shut the door.

Before he could shut it completely, a hand grabbed the knob and the Pissed Off Guy stuck his face into the crack to whisper menacingly. “Listen you little shit, I know you work at the convenience store and you need someone to cover the rest of the rent otherwise you won’t have a place to live either. And in this neighbourhood you’re gonna get some crackhead or fucking _Dongwoo_ , and I would suggest choosing him, because at least he won’t fucking steal your socks like that other bitch ass shithead who goes around looking for roommates.”

Howon blinked. Hesitantly, he opened the door wider. “You know about the socks guy?”

“Everyone knows about the fucking socks guy,” the singing guy rolled his eyes. “He has everyone’s socks. That’s why we don’t hang our laundry outside to dry anymore. I think he scales the buildings.”

The tallest guy’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, I think he came around to my building too, there was a flyer up about him.”

“I wonder what he does with them,” Dongwoo finally spoke, but it was mostly to himself, in a very curious tone.

“Probably some nasty shit,” the singing guy suggested, though he didn’t seem to concerned.

“I heard that it’s a social experiment or something,” the tall guy suggested.

The singing guy scoffed. “What kind of social experiment would that be?”

The tall guy shrugged, then turned his attentions back on Howon. “Are you gonna take him or not? I have to be at my shift in like thirty minutes so I need to know whether or not my friend is gonna be homeless tonight before I go.”

Dongwoo’s eyes became wide and watery as he stared up at the tall guy. “Yeol-ah…”

When Howon didn’t respond, ‘Yeol’ rolled his eyes and grabbed Dongwoo’s wrist. “Come, you can have my bed tonight, but you have to walk Aga to make up for it.”

Dongwoo sniffled and wiped his eyes with the back of his hands. “Okay,” he said in a small voice, and glanced back at Howon for a second before following after his friend.

The two other guys looked exasperated. “If we split it with Sungyeol-ssi, you can take Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I’ll take Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and Sungyeol-ssi can have him on Sundays and holidays,” the singing guy said.

The pissed guy did not look so pissed anymore and just sighed. “Yeah sure, at least this is better than finding him in fucking chains again.” He glanced back at Howon and nodded slightly in farewell. “Let’s go, we need to throw some of his crap away before he sees.”

They walked down the hall, with the singing guy jumping onto Dongwoo’s back (perhaps in an attempt to cheer him up), and just before they disappeared Howon stepped out of his apartment. “Wait!”

Four heads whipped around to face him so fast Howon worried that they would have snapped their necks in unison. Dongwoo’s eyes were impossibly wide and full of hope. Shit. What had he done?

“You. Um, you can, um, stay here, but we have to negotiate some thi—,” Howon was cut off in his generous offer very quickly by the tall guy.

“Thank the fucking lord,” he said, throwing his arms up. “Don’t even come near my apartment, don’t touch Aga, stay with this guy. I’m going to work. Call me if he kicks you out.” And with that, he opened the door to the stairwell and ran off.

The other two, the singing guy and the angry guy, but sighed in relief. They both slung an arm over Dongwoo’s shoulders and walked him back towards Howon. Dongwoo looked absolutely elated, and had the brightest grin on his face.

“Um, I just need to negotiate with Dongwoo-ssi…” Howon tried to explain, looking at the other two in confusion.

“We’re his guardians,” the singing guy said affectionately, but Dongwoo’s face soured.

“I can do it!” he insisted.

The angry guy rolled his eyes and covered his own mouth to whisper something into Dongwoo’s ears. Dongwoo’s eyes widened. “Oh. Okay!”

“Okay,” the angry guy concluded. “Woohyun and I are going to inspect your apartment, I’ll give you five minutes to hide your kinky shit.”

Howon scrunched his nose. “I don’t have kinky shit.”

“Bo-oring,” Woohyun intoned, letting go of Dongwoo and pushing past Howon into his apartment. “That’s one point against you already.”

Howon frowned. “I’m the one doing _you_ a favour.”

The angry guy raised one of his brows. “Technically, we’ll be doing you a favour by giving you a roommate.”

Howon was about to rebuff, getting riled up, but Dongwoo sidled up to him quietly. “Hey, sorry about them, they’re kind of overprotective.” He stepped back a little and gave a deep bow at the waist, and when he straightened he was grinning. “Let’s live well together from now on!”

His smile was almost certainly made of sunshine itself, that was the only reason to explain its brightness. “Let’s live well together,” Howon agreed, for the first time smiling faintly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys! i appreciate you guys reading my stuff! please let me know where i can improve! also please tell me which person you relate to so far.
> 
> btw this is unedited so like. forgive any errors LOL


	4. four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> myungsoo realizes he has no friends, sungjong realizes he has one more friend than he expected, and woohyun is bullied

**Chapter 4**

“Byeol-ah!” Myungsoo called, irritated. “You scratched up the couch again, what did I tell you about that? I spent money on a scratching post!” He pushed some cushions off the couch, searching. “Where are you?”

He heard Byeol make a tiny mewl from his bedroom and Myungsoo sprinted towards the sound. “Byeol!” Myungsoo called again, losing patience. “What the fuck?”

Byeol was being a piece of shit, truly. Sometimes Byeol got into Moods, where he would be as destructive as possible to get his attention. It worked, of course, so Myungsoo inadvertently reinforced the behaviour. “No treats for you, Byeol!”

At the word treats, Byeol crawled out of Myungsoo’s closet at a languid pace. Myungsoo cringed at seeing where he had been hiding. He loved black clothes, really, but even grey fur stood out on it.

Byeol came to sit at Myungsoo’s feet, tapping at his bare toes with his paw.

“No, do _not_ be cute. I said _no_ treats. _None_.” Myungsoo stepped away from Byeol, but Byeol continued to follow at his heels, weaving between his legs, causing Myungsoo to stumble a little. “I’ll step on your tail, Byeollie, don’t!”

The cat blinked up at him, then rubbed his head against his calf, purring deeply.

Myungsoo, however, was nothing if not strict. He led Byeol to the crime scene and held his face so that he would look at the scratches. “Bad. Bad Byeol. Don’t do that!” He then picked up the cat and set him next to the scratching post, taking his paw to let him touch the stand. “Scratch here! Not the couch!”

Byeol finally understood he would not be getting treats, so in an act of defiance he sneezed in Myungsoo’s direction and sauntered off to his favourite chair, where he liked to lord over the rest of the apartment.

Myungsoo blinked at Byeol, affronted, but decided to leave it for now. He had to go to work anyway.

He picked up his bag and threw on a sweater over his uniform and left _without_ saying goodbye to Byeol.

He got to walk to work at a relaxing pace today, because he left early. On his way, he saw Sungjong crossing the street.

“Sungjongie!” Myungsoo called, raising his hand in a wave. Sungjong paused and looked up, smiling sweetly when he saw Myungsoo.

Myungsoo adored Sungjong. He wasn’t really small, but he was cute and petulant and had the best smile. And he was manipulative, which was funny to watch sometimes. Sungjong also was too skinny and looked like he had a low body temperature, so Myungsoo did his best to watch over him and smother him in affection so he would be warm. Sungjong was only a little bit younger than Myungsoo, but it was fun to take care of him and tease him and sometimes if he was lucky, Sungjong would invite Myungsoo over to watch his stupid scary movies. Myungsoo usually fell asleep in between, but Sungjong didn’t seem to mind.

Sungjong walked over to meet Myungsoo (Sungjong never ran unless an authority figure was watching him), “What’s up, hyung?” he asked, falling into step next to him.

Myungsoo told him about Byeol’s newest antics, and Sungjong laughed and said he deserved it. Sungjong told him about his day too, which was full of school, volunteering, and now work. Myungsoo really worried about Sungjong sometimes, he was really spreading himself too thin. He never had a day off either. But every time Myungsoo tried to point that out, Sungjong said that he was fine and brushed it off.

“Hey hyung,” Sungjong started as they reached work. “Do you not have any friends?”

Sungjong was very blunt, and Myungsoo blinked at him for a second. He wasn’t offended, just confused. “Huh?”

“You only talk about your cat. Who else do you hang out with?” They weaved through the snacks aisle towards the employee locker room.

Myungsoo thought about that for a bit. “You? Aren’t we friends?”

Sungjong waved that off. “Yeah, but I don’t count. No one else? What do you do in your free time?”

Myungsoo hung his sweater in his locker. “I do commissions and take care of Byeol. I watch dramas too. Sometimes I play the guitar.”

Was Myungsoo a loner? He had known he was, in the back of his mind, but it wasn’t as if he had a hard time talking to new people. His friends from high school didn’t keep in touch anymore, but if he bumped into them they went out for a drink once in a while. And he’s dated around a little, but it just ended up not working out. He wasn’t socially defunct. He just chose not to interact too much with people he didn’t know that well. Wasn’t that okay?

Sungjong didn’t seem to think so, with the way he sighed and shook his head. But he decided to drop it, so Myungsoo didn’t think more of it either.

The work day was boring as usual. Some bitchy mom with three undisciplined kids came and made a mess of the aisles, and had the gall to be upset at _Myungsoo_ for not being able to hear her request over the screaming of her children.

But Myungsoo wasn’t in a bad mood by the end of it. Just neutral. He was fine. Maybe just a little tuckered out.

When the next shift’s workers came to relieve them, Myungsoo ran to the locker room to finally sit. A nine hour shift hauling boxes and being mentally tested by asshole customers never got easier. It wasn’t even his longest shift ever. But he was still tired. He didn’t know why.

Sungjong came into the room with another one of their coworkers, talking about something. Sungjong noticed Myungsoo sitting at the table and waved his coworker goodbye. Gentle, he approached Myungsoo and touched his shoulder. “You okay, hyung?”

Myungsoo smiled up at him. “Yeah, of course Sungjongie.”

Sungjong frowned. “Okay. Get your bag.”

“Okay.”

Myungsoo got his bag and slipped his sweater on. He went to go and drape himself across Sungjong’s back, resting his cheek on his shoulder, while Sungjong stood in front of his locker and checked his phone.

“Ugh.”

“What?” Myungsoo asked, peeking at his screen. It was a text thread between Sungjong and someone named Hoya Hyung. “What kind of name is Hoya?”

Sungjong knocked his temple against Myungsoo’s head. “It’s a nickname.”

“What’s his real name?”

Sungjong thought for a second. “Lee Howon?”

Myungsoo stifled a laugh against the fabric of Sungjong’s uniform shirt. “You don’t sound sure.”

“Shut up,” Sungjong said absentmindedly, typing on his phone.

“What does Lee Howon want? Why’d you say ugh?”

“Hmm?” Sungjong asked, typing a bit more then pressing send. “Oh. He’s been looking for a roommate and finally found one. But he’s a bit worried about him.”

“My building has this guy who went around stealing socks. I think it’s a kink thing. So that’s why we’re not allowed to hang our laundry in our balconies anymore.”

Sungjong wrinkled his nose. “That’s weird. I guess it’s not so bad, as long as it’s not the socks guy. But Hoya hyung wants me to come and be there tonight for a bit, since the guy is moving in right now and he said he needs someone on his side. I don’t know what that means.”

Myungsoo paused, standing up straight and yawning. “You gonna go?”

As he thought about it, Sungjong slowly pulled his own light trench coat on and grabbed his bag, stuffing his phone in his pocket. He slammed the locker door shut. “Well, I guess if Hoya hyung has _no_ one else.”

“Oh?” Myungsoo pointed at Sunjong, coming close enough to poke his cheek where he was wearing a smug expression. “Why do you sound so high and mighty about it?”

Sungjong wrinkled his nose and knocked Myungsoo’s finger out of his face. He stuck his chin in the air and started his way out of the room and towards the shop exit. “I’m just important.”

“Ooooh,” Myungsoo crowed, holding back chuckles. “Look at you, you’re practically _preening_.”

“I’m not _preening_ ,” Sungjong immediately denied, rolling his eyes. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“Neither do I, but you’re doing it,” Myungsoo said, hiding his laugh behind his hand. “What’s so important about this Hoya anyway?”

They finally entered the street. Myungsoo followed Sungjong, who was going in the direction Myungsoo’s building was located in, anyway. Sungjong thought about the question for a moment, then smiled to himself when he looked back up at Myungsoo.

“He likes to dance—”

“—oh, you like to dance too, right?”

“Yeah. He dances and he’s fearless, he keeps going after his dream of being a well-known dancer. And he taught himself everything he knows, he’s so cool. He even dropped out of high school to do it.”

Myungsoo scoffed at that. “He couldn’t have just danced at lunch and after school? Isn’t that dramatic?”

Sungjong shrugged. “Maybe, but he said it was because he knew what he was doing and didn’t wanna to waste any time on things he didn’t find important. But he said he’s going to get his GED once his career takes off a little.”

“And you admire him because…?”

“Because Hoya hyung did what I wasn’t able to do, y’know? I wish I could just focus on dancing, rather than the degree I’m doing right now. And I wish I could just refuse my parents and tell them about my dream properly, in a way that they would take me seriously. I think Hoya hyung did that. And he’s smart and knows everything. And he listens to my problems.”

Myungsoo knew it was wrong, but he was a little irked. “I could listen to your problems too, y’know.”

Sungjong blinked out of his Hoya hyung daze. “Huh? Oh yeah, sure. But it’s just different with Hoya hyung.”

This Hoya was a _threat_. Sungjong made Myungsoo realize today that Myungsoo had ONE friend that was a human and ONE friend that was a cat! How come Sungjong never talked about _him_ with starry eyes? And if Hoya took away Sungjong from Myungsoo, then he would have ZERO friends that were human and ONE friend that was a cat. It was appalling.

“But I thought I was your best friend?” Myungsoo pouted, crossing his arms.

Sungjong stopped walking for a second to stare at Myungsoo. Myungsoo suddenly felt self-conscious. Did he say something wrong? Was he being petty?

“Oh, uh, sure. Yeah. But Hoya hyung is just a nice hyung from work. Don’t worry about it.” And with that, Sungjong resumed walking, but now Myungsoo was suspicious.

“I wanna come too.”

“Where?”

“To see the roommate.”

Sungjong stopped walking again. He squinted at Myungsoo for a second. “No.”

Myungsoo was shocked. “No?” Sungjong’s never said _no_ to him before. This Hoya had truly poisoned Sungjong. He was _rebelling_.

“You’re acting weird, so you don’t get to meet him,” Sungjong said, grabbing Myungsoo’s elbow and dragging him across the street when the signal turned. “I’ll drop you home. I’m only going to see him for a second. I have homework to do.”

Myungsoo was still reeling. His cute Sungjongie had said _no_. He swore to destroy this Hoya. Or at least make him look at least a little stupid in front of Sungjong, so that Sungjong could see that Myungsoo was the superior hyung.

They reached the front of Myungsoo’s apartment building. Sungjong widened his eyes. “You live like two buildings down from Hoya hyung and the convenience store I work at. Huh. I never realized.”

At this, Myungsoo was alert. “Go walk to his building, Sungjong-ah, I’ll watch from here to make sure you get there safely. Or I could drop you. Since it’s close.”

Sungjong swatted Myungsoo’s shoulder and pushed him towards the glass doors. “No, hyung, you just want to see where he lives. Don’t be weird. Go home.”

“But Sungjongie…”

“Good night hyung!” Sungjong said with finality, stuffing him into the lobby and pulling the door shut behind him. He waved through the glass and stood with crossed arms until Myungsoo walked to the elevators. Myungsoo looked back with his best sad expression, and Sungjong _still_ shook his head.

He really would destroy this Hoya.

-x-x-x-

Sungjong did not understand what had gotten into Myungsoo hyung. He was being clingier than usual. And they had never mentioned the prospect of being best friends before. In fact, Sungjong wasn’t even aware that Myungsoo saw him as more than a coworker he liked to use as a living heating pad.

Hopefully he would get over it before their next shift together. Sungjong jaywalked across the street and towards Hoya hyung’s building. When he reached Hoya hyung’s apartment, he raised his hand to knock, but before he could, the elevator opened and revealed two guys carrying boxes.

“I think someone’s standing there,” one of the guys said. The boxes they were holding were piled high above their heads.

“Hey, can you move?” the other guy said, facing away from Sungjong. He really couldn’t see.

“Um, I’m standing over here, you can go,” Sungjong pointed out awkwardly, pressing closer to the door.

The other guy turned around and tilted his head back to see Sungjong. “We need to get in there. Mind opening the door?”

“Why the hell did they shut it?”

“You know what kind of people live in our building, hyung.”

Sungjong quickly opened the door and stepped aside as the two of them filed in. He followed them in. One of them must be the roommate. “Hyung!” Sungjong called as he walked inside, shutting the door behind him. “Some guys just walked into your apartment!”

“I know!” Hoya hyung called back from somewhere. Sungjong followed his voice into the spare bedroom Hoya used for guests and his workout equipment. He was crouched on the floor, fiddling with a screwdriver and a bedframe. “Hey, thanks for coming.”

“Mhm,” Sungjong replied, looking around. For some reason, this room had two desks and he wasn’t sure why. Were two people moving in? “Where’s the guy?”

At this, Hoya hyung finally looked up. “Huh? You haven’t seen him yet? He’s very noticeable.”

Sungjong shook his head. Hoya hyung got up and stuck his head out of the bedroom.  “Hey, where’s your friend?”

Sungjong came up behind Hoya hyung to see who he was talking to. It was this short guy with fluffy hair. He looked familiar, actually. Where had he seen him before?

“Hey, don’t speak informally to me, I’m older than you,” the guy sniffed, acting offended.

Hoya gathered his brows in confusion. “We’re the same year, you said?”

“But I’m _older_.”

“Two _months_ older. _Barely_.”

“Old-“ the guy pointed at him, “-er.”

“Ass-“ Hoya hyung pointed at the guy, “-hole.”

“Hey!”

“Youtube!” Sungjong cut in, clapping in excitement. “You’re the singing guy from Youtube!”

The guy’s face changed, brightening. “You know me?”

“I forgot your channel name, but I’ve seen your videos. I like your covers a lot!” Sungjong complimented.

“NamWoohyunSings!” the guy—Nam Woohyun—replied, grinning. He came up to him, pushing Hoya hyung out of the way with his shoulder to shake Sungjong’s hand with both of his own. “Thank you so much for watching.”

Hoya hyung sputtered to himself, covering up a laugh. Woohyun’s face soured. “What now, asshole?”

“Nothing,” Hoya hyung said to himself, turning away. He went back to where he was sitting earlier, pulling out his phone.

Woohyun rolled his eyes. “What’s your name?” he asked, focusing back on Sungjong with a smile. “You look so nice for someone acquainted with such a bitchy person.” Woohyun glanced down at Hoya hyung, who didn’t react at the insult. He looked a little disappointed and opened his mouth to say something.

Sungjong cut in before he could. “Lee Sungjong. I work with Hoya hyung. I came to meet his new roommate.”

“What year were you born in?” He asked, smiling. He still hadn’t let go of Sungjong’s hand.

“1993.”

He squeezed Sungjong’s hands tightly. “Then call me hyung!”

“ _Why_ are you so obsessed with collecting dongsaengs, you weirdo?” Hoya hyung finally spoke up. “Let go of Sungjong, you’re bothering him.”

“He’s my fan!”

“He didn’t even know your username!”

Woohyun hyung frowned. “So? He watched all my videos. I put so much effort into them, I’ll appreciate anyone who watches them.”

Holding up his phone, Hoya hyung scoffed. “Effort? _Surprising my Fans by DM-ing Them_? _Eating The Spiciest Ramyun_? _My Daily Routine_? Isn’t this supposed to be a singing channel?”

Woohyun hyung let go of Sungjong to throw himself at Hoya hyung in an effort to grab his phone. “Shut up, give me that!”

Sungjong thought that Hoya hyung was very much enjoying harassing Woohyun hyung. “Why are all your covers of mushy songs?” he paused for a second, then burst out in laughter. “Fucking ASMR? Hold on, get off me, I’m playing this,” Hoya hyung kicked Woohyun hyung away to try and crawl to the other corner of the room and huddle over his phone. “Holy shit this is gonna be the best.”

“No!” Woohyun hyung body slammed down on Hoya hyung, possibly crushing a lung. Sungjong sighed.

This seemed like it was going to last a while. Bored, Sungjong stepped out of the room to go grab himself a drink. Hoya hyung usually kept his favourite tea around for when Sungjong visited. Sungjong supposed that the roommate was grabbing his own stuff and would be back shortly. He quickly made himself the tea then stationed himself on the cushy couch in the living room, scrolling through his phone with his feet up on the coffee table. There were a few crashes from the bedroom, but Sungjong ignored it. They’d stop at some point, probably.

A few minutes later, the door opened to reveal two guys. Sungjong straightened. They stepped in, dragging black garbage bags. One of them, the shorter one, made eye contact with Sungjong. “Oh, hello!” he greeted cheerfully.

Sungjong stood up, bowing slightly. “Hello,” he said, trailing off. “Um, do you need help?”

The taller guy grunted, pulling the bag. There was a sheen of sweat on his face. “N-no, this is the last of it. He doesn’t have many clothes.”

Oh, the garbage bags had clothes in them…?

“Yeah, because I wear the same outfits a lot!” the shorter guy replied, obviously not seeing anything wrong with that. Sungjong was slightly appalled, but the guy looked nice enough.

Stepping closer, Sungjong introduced himself. “I’m Lee Sungjong. I came to meet Hoya hyung’s new roommate,” he glanced between the two. He settled on the shorter one. “Which I’m guessing is you?”

“Yes!” the guy agreed, bowing quickly and then grabbing his hand to shake. “I’m Jang Dongwoo! It’s really nice to meet Hoya’s friend! This is my hyung Sunggyu-hyung! He’s really nice, he lives a few floors up!”

Sunggyu smiled at Sungjong, then analyzed his face for a second. “You look so young, is Hoya even allowed to be friends with you?”

“I-I’m in university,” Sungjong replied quickly, flustered. What did he mean, allowed? That was creepy.

“Then we’re your hyungs!” Dongwoo said, grinning widely. Dongwoo was slightly overwhelming, whereas Sunggyu was a little scary, in a quiet way.

“O-okay,” Sungjong agreed, stepping back.

Before they could say anything else, the room’s Bluetooth speakers crackled a little and then there was a hushed chuckle. “ _Hey guys_ ,” someone whispered, his voice booming throughout the room even though he was speaking in such an uncomfortably intimate way. “ _Welcome back to my channel. I’m Nam Woohyun, if you’re new. Today, as you requested, I’m doing ASMR. Lay back and relax. I’ll start._ _Fhoofhoofhoofhoo_.” Woohyun hyung blew into the microphone softly.

“I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU,” Woohyun hyung screeched, and Hoya hyung sprinted out of the room, cackling, pushing between Sunggyu hyung and Dongwoo hyung to run into the hallway without his shoes. Woohyun hyung was hot on his heels, pure fury on his face. Sungjong stumbled to get away from them. The other two barely seemed phased at being jostled around.

“ _You’re so pretty, have sweet dreams. Dream of me. I can’t stop thinking about you_ ,” Woohyun hyung continued to whisper over the speakers.

“TURN IT THE FUCK OFF,” Sungjong heard Woohyun hyung yell from the hallway, obviously anguished.

Sungjong focused back on Sunggyu hyung and Dongwoo hyung. Sunggyu hyung was rubbing his face with his hands, clearly disappointed. Dongwoo hyung was on the floor, laughing, choking a little as he tried to catch his breath.

“This is why I never searched up his channel,” Sunggyu hyung lamented quietly to himself.

-x-x-x-

After the slight hiccup at that bitch Hoya’s place, Woohyun had removed himself from the premises and went back to his apartment three floors up, on the tenth floor. He was _not_ running away, he was being mature.

Yes, okay, his Youtube channel was slightly embarrassing, but when you had a demographic of high school girls and lonely office workers, then you had to give the people what they wanted. And he was slowly gaining fame. He was almost at one thousand followers. It was a big deal to him. Hoya wouldn’t understand.

At least he was recognized today. That almost never happened, really. Sure, people stared because he was handsome, but only three people had ever come up to him to say that they recognized him from Youtube. Sungjong being one of them.

Woohyun patted his serum into his face harder than necessary, angry. He was going to kill Hoya. He couldn’t kill him this time, because Sunggyu hyung had sent Dongwoo to go break them up, and he decided to do that by punching the both of them a few times while laughing. Between the three of them, Dongwoo worked out the most it seemed, so even though he meant it as a joke, it fucking hurt. Took the air out of his sails right away. Next time, he’d get him.

After that, they quickly helped Dongwoo get settled, finishing his bed frame and hanging up all his clothes (because he would live out of the garbage bags for the rest of his life, if it was left up to him). It was a pretty okay apartment. Clean, cozy, plenty of space for Dongwoo to dance in. There was even some food in the kitchen. It was mostly cereal, and he found like a piece of fruit in the fridge. There was some instant rice, mostly just a lot of ramyun.

Overall, Woohyun was relieved that Dongwoo was living in a functional space, even if it was with the devil incarnate himself. But it was fine, the rent was affordable. And for affordable rent? Shit, even Woohyun would do unspeakable things.

Puppy, Woohyun’s trusty right-hand cat, purred next to his feet. Woohyun smiled down at her. “He’s an asshole right? If you ever meet him, make sure to give him a big scratch on his leg. I’ll give you extra treats.”

Puppy’s purring intensified, so Woohyun took that as a yes.

Woohyun finished up his skin routine and then flopped onto his couch to scroll through his social media accounts before going to bed. He had to go in early tomorrow because the owner of the restaurant wanted to add new dishes to their menu, and they were going to teach them to everyone. After about ten minutes, the keypad on his door beeped and the door unlocked. Woohyun sat up quickly, watching over the couch to see who would come in. He expected it to be Sunggyu hyung, because only Dongwoo and Sunggyu hyung knew his door code. But Dongwoo would be too preoccupied having fun with Hoya, so it would have to be Sunggyu hyung.

However, the brown head of hair that emerged from the hallway belonged to none other than Dongwoo.

Woohyun put his phone down and rested his chin on the armrest. “Got bored of Hoya?”

Dongwoo rolled his eyes and came to join him on the couch, flopping onto it and onto Woohyun’s leg too. “ _Woohyunnie_ ,” Dongwoo whined, throwing an arm over his eyes.

“What.”

Dongwoo didn’t say anything.

Which was odd, really, because Dongwoo was always talking. Comparable even to the amount Woohyun talked.

Woohyun flicked Dongwoo’s nose, and the other retaliated by blindly knocking his hand out of the way with a fist. “Yah, just say it.”

“I’m _old_.”

Jesus fucking Christ.

Woohyun immediately kicked him off his legs. “I just spent all day helping you move in, my dignity was torn to shreds by the monster you’ve decided to shack up with, _and_ you punched me. Now you’re here to complain about you getting old?”

Dongwoo sat up on his knees immediately, grabbing Woohyun’s shoulders and staring at him with the most intensity he had shown in years. “No, I mean, I can’t keep living like this. My career is nonexistent, I haven’t dated anyone properly in years, and I have no savings! This is not how I wanted to live!”

Woohyun settled back into the couch, sighing. “You’ve been like that for years. Why is this just coming to you now?”

Crossing his legs, Dongwoo stared down into his lap, playing with his fingers. “What if I mess up this roommate too? Then I really won’t have anywhere to go.”

It was possible. With Dongwoo, these things were definitely possible. Being friends with Dongwoo meant you had to be prepared to enter complete chaos at a moment’s notice.

Woohyun couldn’t tell Dongwoo that, though. Usually Dongwoo fell asleep in new places really easily. So this must have really been bothering him. “Listen,” Woohyun began, tipping his head up to look at the ceiling. “This guy seems to have a really high threshold for bullshit. And he seems desperate. I think he’ll be able to handle you. And he likes to dance, and you like to dance, so you finally have something in common with your roommates that isn’t drinking.”

Dongwoo sniffled. “… that’s true, I guess.”

Woohyun glanced over at Dongwoo. Seeing how downtrodden he seemed, Woohyun reached over to thump his shoulder. “It’s absolutely true. Now that you’re in the same building as us, when you need to be destructive, come do it in one of our apartments. Mostly Sunggyu’s apartment, because he has more money than me and can afford to repair his walls.”

“Really?” he asked in the smallest voice, and Woohyun felt his heart go out to him. No one could ever resist a sad Dongwoo, it felt innately wrong. Like something was misaligned in the universe.

“Of course!” Woohyun stood up. “Here, you can cuddle with Puppy to make you feel better. I’ll go grab him.”

Dongwoo perked up immediately. And of course he would, Puppy was an expensive cat with expensive tastes, this was the biggest honour. Woohyun went to go grab her from where she was resting on his bed. “Dongwoo, you really don’t have to worry. You’re saving up right now, and that’s okay. You’re gonna own a restaurant one day too. Don’t worry. You’ll be like your dad,” Woohyun spoke loud enough for Dongwoo to hear, then walked back into the living room. Dongwoo was looking at him hopefully.

“I hope so. I hate that we had to sell our old one after he died. It wasn’t fair to Umma.”

“I know you can do it,” Woohyun encouraged, and then carefully deposited Puppy into Dongwoo’s arms. “Here you go.”

Dongwoo immediately bloomed a bright smile on his face, breaking into his usual giggles when he saw something inexplicably cute. “Look at her, she’s so—OH FUCKING SHIT, WOOHYUN HELP ME—”

Puppy had sunk her claws into Dongwoo’s exposed forearm.

“WRONG PERSON PUPPY, NO!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the first time in my life i am posting AFTER having finished my work for school. i mean i have exams in two days BUT i finished all my assignments before posting this hehe. 
> 
> Sorry for the wait. I really hope you like it. i am having a bit of trouble just. writing. so i hope this is okay. pls feel free to give me feedback on where i can improve. love you!


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